The federal government on Thursday launched a new program in Denver designed to increase childhood immunization rates. It is the first school-located program in the country to offer vaccines to all students, regardless of socioeconomic status, experts say.

Denver is one of two cities to test the program in elementary schools and the only city to test it in middle schools.

As recently as 2003, Colorado ranked 50th in the nation for childhood immunizations. Dr. Judith Shlay, a family physician at Denver Health who is the project’s principal investigator, said those rates are improving, but Colorado could do better, especially among adolescents.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2008 about 91 percent of Colorado kids between the ages of 13 and 17 were up to date on measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. But only 32.4 percent had been inoculated against meningococcal meningitis, which is recommended for teens.

“Adolescents are a hard population to reach,” said Dr. Matthew Daley, a pediatrician and vaccine research expert with Kaiser Permanente who is working with researchers at the University of Colorado and Denver Health Medical Center to evaluate the model.

By the time they reach middle school, most kids are up to date on vaccines required to enroll in school. And they are typically well, so they don’t often visit a doctor who might recommend they receive inoculation for illnesses such as human papillomavirus and influenza.

“This is the most important preventative service we can offer children,” said Dr. Judith Shlay, a family physician at Denver Health who is the project’s principal investigator.

Offering inoculations at school makes life much easier for parents, who don’t need to leave work to drive kids to a clinic or doctor’s office. They just sign consent forms that are sent home, and then everything is done at school.

Parents never see a bill. The health insurance plans are billed directly.

Funding for the program comes from two grants from the CDC totaling $1.6 million.

The program is run by a partnership made up of Denver Public Schools, Denver Health, the University of Colorado Denver and Kaiser Permanente.

It’s being tested in 20 elementary schools and eight middle schools, where a total of 4,000 students are expected to receive vaccines by the end of this school year.

On Thursday, about 130 students at Henry Middle School were vaccinated for seasonal and H1N1 influenza, meningococcal meningitis and for tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis. Girls also received HPV.

At the auditorium in Henry, students got a shot in each arm and a whiff of nasal spray.

“I was really scared at first,” said Cheyenne Schneider, 13. “I was really happy they did it all at once. I just felt a pinch. It turned out better than I thought.”

In Denver elementary schools, the children receive flu vaccines.

According to the CDC, during the 2007-08 school year, 21 percent of Colorado’s school-age kids who were not in high-risk groups were vaccinated against flu; 36 percent of the kids in high-risk groups received the inoculation.

“That’s not good,” Shlay said. “It should be higher.”

Middle-school students will receive a booster for tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis. Shlay said that in the 2006-07 school year, 63 percent of Colorado’s adolescent students received the vaccine, compared with the national average of 41 percent.

“That is a required vaccination and still not all kids were vaccinated, so there’s room to grow,” Shlay said.

On Thursday, participating teens also were vaccinated for flu and meningococcal meningitis, which are not required by the state.

Research goals of the program include determining the cost of school-located vaccinations, the feasibility of billing health insurance plans, and how well they are accepted by parents and providers.

Data also will be collected to compare the vaccination rates in schools where this program is provided with schools not part of the pilot.

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